Brilliant International Musicians Series: Ensemble Renard (wind quintet)

Programme for Sunday 1^st December:

Umoja – Valerie Coleman
Summer Music – Samuel Barber
Wind Quintet – Thea Musgrave
Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm, from Mikrokosmos – Bela Bartok, arr. George Strivens

INTERVAL

Six Bagatelles – Gyorgy Ligeti
Andante – Mozart
Quintette – Francaix

Ensemble Renard comprises five of the country’s most outstanding young musicians. Together, they exist to explore a wide range of timbral possibilities within modern day chamber performance. Centrally a wind quintet, Ensemble Renard’s frequent collaboration with composers and guest instrumentalists allows them to showcase a prismatic variety of colours.

Ensemble Renard carefully curate compelling and contrasting programmes tailored to each audience, aiming to take repertoire rarely given the light of day to audiences from London to the Hebrides and beyond. From Gershwin to Knussen, each piece they play demonstrates the kaleidoscopic versatility of the ensemble, and most  Ensemble Renard concerts feature works especially written or arranged for them.

Ensemble Renard have quickly emerged onto the scene as one of the UK’s most promising young chamber ensembles. To date, they have been made Tunnell Trust awardees, Britten-Pears Young Artists, Stoller Hall Young Artists, and awardees of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust’s Recital Scheme. Performance highlights of the ensemble’s career so far include their European debut at the Dinard Opening Festival in Brittany, a recital at the Aldeburgh Festival, and an appearance on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ with Sean Rafferty.

Ensemble Renard champion new music and regularly commission works for wind quintet, having begun their career working with composers including Hans Abrahamsen and John Woolrich on performances of their repertoire. They were among the first artists to be awarded a grant from the Vaughan Williams Foundation in support of a new commission by Luke Lewis, and in 2023 they recorded their debut album of commissions by the Stomping Ground collective.

The Ensemble’s members are some of the most promising young classical musicians of the moment, who regularly perform with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Manchester Camerata, English Touring Opera, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, and the English National Opera, to name but a few.

Ensemble Renard’s concert diary has something for everyone. They can be found performing traditional recitals at music clubs up and down the country, putting on family concerts with narrator and school-based workshops, recitals in collaboration with organisations including Wigmore Hall and Spitalfields Music, in addition to performances at new music festivals in collaboration with a host of different composers.

The 2023/34 season will see Ensemble Renard continue to take their work across the UK, with performances at Snape Maltings as Britten-Pears Young Artists for the second year running; recitals at venues including St John’s Smith Square and the Stoller Hall, and a return for the third year running to the Llanfyllin Music Festival in Wales.